Date: 29 March 2007 06:20 am (UTC)
ext_7776: (0)
If we want categies denoting genres/focus, "Romance", "Drama", "Action/Adventure", "Character exploration", "Smut", etc. make much better descriptors

I certainly think this is true, and I can't but help the cynical thought that by doing so, we would have cottoned on to the methods used by the print press for years. :) I personally use Gen to mean a fic that is rated for a general audience, rather than one indicating no pairings, but I am aware these two definitions exist (causing multiple headaches in their wake).

But yeah, people want to be warned against the pairings they dislike, in every cases, so warning for pairings all the time should be the best behaviour.

I must admit, I shy away from that sort of perspective. To me, it smacks of spoilers - when we see a movie, or read a book, we don't always get forewarned what the pairings will be. We just have to wait and see. Part of the problem, I suspect, is so many fans read fanfic to read more about the particular pairing they like, rather than of the show in general. So many stories these days are defined by the pairing involved rather than the actual content of the story (of which the pairing is part, but certainly not everything).

Okay, so non-exhaustive list of genres I can think of right now

How about Alternante universe? I don't think it comes under your definition of World exploration, because you specify that as exploring an aspect of canon while AUs throw some aspects of canon out the window (and I mean some, if you throw away *all* aspects of canon, including characterisation, then you're basically writing an original story but taking the character names from someone else).

I can also see people objecting to you putting Romance and Smut in together - it depends on whether one is defining Romance in the Harlequin novel style or Gone With the Wind style - one is pretty much thinly veiled fantasy porn, the other is purely emotional and sex is not a core aspect (indeed, it's often danced around but not mentioned overtly).

This was quite a timely post for me; I've been dwelling on the use of genres in fanfic (like large portions of fandom at the moment!) and the way we 'sell' our stories to others - including ratings, genres and summaries. This is giving me some extra things to muse on, thanks!
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